‘Nationalism is becoming a threat to the unity of the UK’

‘Nationalism is becoming a threat to the unity of the UK’. Discuss.

Britain is historically a unitary state, however the last 30years has particularly seen the revival of nationalism as devolution re-emerged as a political issue. Up until 1970 nationalist demands were scarcely on the political agenda e.g. both Scotland and Wales had been granted administrative devolution with cabinet level representation and the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru - Scotland and Wales’s respective nationalist parties resembled pressure groups with limited political influence. Since 1970 nationalism has exploded as a political issue, since the spectacular breakthrough in electoral success of both the Welsh and Scottish nationalist parties in the 1970 and 1974 general election. Today the SNP Plaid Cymru are unequivocally the second largest parties, highlighting the immense support for nationalism in Scotland and Wales. Thus fuelling speculation that nationalism is becoming a threat to the unity of the UK as further nationalist demands occur and resulting in the break up of the UK. This essay will analyse the different forms of nationalism whilst trying to determine the extent to which nationalism is a threat to the unity of the UK.

Forms of nationalism in the UK vary immensely. In Scotland, nationalism has taken a strong pro-political independence vibe. The SNP however, have suspended their official policy of full Scottish independence to cooperate with devolution - the transfer of power from a superior to an inferior political body, as their valuable stepping-stone in the route to full independence -complete political and legislative autonomy. The official party in Scotland is undoubtedly the labour party with no prospect of displacement by the SNP; it is therefore argued that the populace are content with the given amount of devolution, curbing demands for full independence. However, nationalism in Scotland remains a substantial threat to the unity of the UK as the 1997 referenda in Scotland over devolution produced an emphatic ‘yes’ result, showing that devolution (and questionably full independence) was in popular demand. However, with the existing structure of devolution in Scotland, significant anomalies are emerging - mainly with respect to Scotland’s legislative autonomy. Perhaps the future most problematic area is Scotland’s payment of tuition fees for every student. It is palpable that the financial repercussions of such a policy will prove uncontrollable if Scotland’s economy essentially remains under central control i.e. uniform interest rates and fiscal policy. Another indication of the threat that Scottish nationalism poses to the unity of the UK comes with respect to the imbalance of power between MPs and MSPs, in the form of the ‘West Lothian’ conundrum. This observes that with devolution, Scottish MP’s will be able to legislate on domestic English issues such as health and education (decided at Westminster), but these same domestic Scottish issues will only be decided upon in the Scottish parliament of which English MPs have no influence. The only even partially viable ‘solutions’ to this such as reducing the number or voting rights of Scottish and Welsh MPs or devolving power to the English regions all unavoidably involve further separatism. With the demand for devolution in Scotland being so great (as evidenced by the 97 referendum) re-centralising power is merely not a politically acceptable option so further division via autonomy will become the outcome, thus an eventual break up of the UK.

Wales is perhaps the least place, likely to cause a break up of the UK.

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Wales is perhaps the least place, likely to cause a break up of the UK.

Wales, unlike Scotland or Northern Ireland is geographically much closer to England and historically much more comprehensively absorbed e.g. it was formally incorporated into England back in 1536 and unlike Scotland or Northern Ireland, Wales shares its legal, criminal justice and education system with England. Therefore nationalism in Wales mainly takes a cultural / patriotic form i.e. preserving the dominant use of the Welsh language. It is therefore the official Plaid Cymru policy - not to campaign for political independence but merely for greater devolution to combat the vast ‘Englishing’ process of Wales. This is why the Welsh are content with a limited version of political devolution i.e. an assembly without the power over primary legislation or tax varying powers as opposed to a parliament.

Opinion polls have shown that demand for Welsh independence reflects less than 10% of the Welsh population. In the 1998 devolution referendum, the Welsh narrowly managed a majority yes vote although due to the extremely low turnout, the ‘yes’ vote represented a mere 25% of the population.

The Welsh nationalist party may be comfortably the second largest party in Wales, however Plaid Cymru policy has never been one of full Welsh independence, thus it is clear that Wales is currently not a threat to the unity of the UK.

Perhaps the most prominent example of the threat of nationalism to the unity of the UK is in Ireland where the Irish Nationalists’ demands has proved extremely corrosive against the strong opposing Unionists’ demands of Irish and British unification. Northern Ireland has always been ‘A place apart’ with its historic Nationalist versus Unionist conflict being perhaps the most intractable problem faced by the British government in the past 30 years. The two main Irish nationalist parties, the SDLP and Sinn Fein secured 40% of the vote in the ‘98’ elections for the Northern Ireland assembly, emphasising support for Irish independence. It is however, the numerous acts of the Northern Irish nationalist terrorism (namely by the IRA) and extreme violence that has proved to be the most severe problem for Anglo-Irish unity. The extremities of this situation are evidenced by the fact that Sinn Fein -Irelands most notorious violent and destructive nationalist party -achieved 18% of the popular vote despite its eminent responsibility for countless Irish and British fatalities through its explosive direct action methods. The immense threat that Irish nationalism poses to unity also manifests itself in the gargantuan concessions by the UK Labour government, most controversially the negotiations for (and most of the content of) the Good Friday Agreement of 98, which faced enormous criticism and succeeded in turning a generally historic bi-partisan issue in British politics, to somewhat of a policy fault line. However, the obduracy and inability to compromise for peace over the whole nationalism issue in Ireland is nothing new. It has existed for at least 50years with still no independent Ireland but extreme terrorist acts strewn all across the years. Therefore with the most developments in the Northern Ireland peace process i.e. the most recent Good Friday Agreement of April 1998, which saw a unique agreement with Britain, the Unionists and the Nationalists, remains generally on track so it is qualified to predict that a break up the UK via Ireland is not an immediate prospect. However, an accurate long-term prediction about Ireland is unattainable.

In conclusion, there has been an overall unequivocal and unprecedented surge in nationalist demands in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But there is no evidence that it threatens the current unity of the UK. However, with the inimitable rise of English nationalism and significant unacceptable anomalies with the present situation, it is clear that in th